Starting All Over Again

Hi. My name is Erin. And I have no idea what I’m doing with my life. How are you? About a month ago, I lost my job. Although that doesn’t sound right. I know what happened to my job and where it went. It was eliminated altogether. So I didn’t so much lose it. It was more like I lost my direction and career focus. And my income. And my future livelihood. And all the momentum I had built up in my career. Those things are gone and I’m not sure how to find them. After almost 15 years of building up what my management determined was a somewhat useless skill set which only guided me firmly into lower level management or upper level peon status, I don’t know if I want to find them.

So maybe alien toys at my desk weren’t the way to go.

I always thought I’d get to do something creative but apparently that doesn’t get you paid. Money isn’t everything but it is security and security is nice. But you have to change yourself to fit into the corporate world. Compared to what I’m considering now, corporate life was surprisingly easy. All it required was erasing the things that made me . . . Me.

So what do I do? Do I change careers and do the thing I pictured myself doing after I retire? Do I start from scratch and sacrifice relative financial security for the hope that I’ll find something I actually enjoy doing? I don’t know if I have what it takes to get on that hustle and grind.

I feel too young to be having a midlife crisis. Can we call it a third-way-through skirmish?